Anyone at the 02 arena on saturday to see Metallica play their final dates of their ‘world magnetic’ tour? Its great to have a whole new set of Metallica songs to see them play, rather than just dusting of the much loved classics again.
The new Metallica album ‘Death Magnetic’ is cruelly compared to the classic ‘Master of puppets’, But maybe this is because it doesnt sound like the other albums. Death magnetic doesnt have the simplicity of the ‘Black’ album, yet the technicality of ‘And justice for all’. ‘That was just your life’ and ‘end of the line, which open up the album feel as if ‘Battery’ and title track ‘Master of puppets’ got an update for 2008/9. The same is true of the album closers ’suicide and redemption’ and ‘my apocalypse’ -its like they wanted to reproduce ‘Orion’ and ‘Damage inc’ from Master of puppets. The album surprised alot of people who were ready to to write it off- myself included.
After main support Machine head build the crowd up into a frenzy, its up to Metallica to deliver, and they dont disapoint. Starting with the opening two tracks from the new album and dont let up the pace by playing 3 tracks from the much loved ‘And justice for all’. Perhaps aware thats its Justice’s 20th aniversary? Who knows, i was just happy to get the train wreck (in a good way) that is ‘one’, ‘harvester of sorrow’ and the title track itself -all nine minutes of it.
One surprise in the set list was ‘fight fire with fire’, from the album ‘Ride the lightning’, a song very rarely brought out live, and the trip to London to see them play that song was worth it alone. Metallica end up playing a further four tracks from the new album, and you cant help feeling that the guys are actually enjoying having new material to play, with Hetfield running in between the four microphones placed around the stage. The encore sees them bust out a Motorhead cover of ‘Overkill’, followed by bringing the house down with ‘Kill ‘em all’ favourites ‘Hit the lights’ and ‘Seek and destroy’.
I last saw them at Download 2006 when they playedall of the master of puppets album, an amazing set which I didnt think they would ever top. I was wrong, and glad of it, Metallica proved with Death magnetic they could still write fast aggressive music, and tonight proved (to me anyway) they can still deliver a set full of surprises and fist pounding metal.
Just a shame about the trains then huh? Thinking about holding a riverside event near the O2 or want to keep up with London events?
